Krushed!
by YellowRoseOfTexas
Summary: Will the teenaged Krushers prevail over the Bashers? READ AND FIND OUT! Meanwhile, David Michael finds out what it really means to be Krushed.
1. Prologue

Krushed

_As told by David Michael Thomas_

My older sister is considered an idea machine by those who know her best. What people don't realize is that the idea machine gene sort of runs in our family. My brother, Sam, was the most finely-tuned idea machine of the Thomas clan. No offense to Kristy, but compared to Sam, she was about as creative as a plain white t-shirt. While Kristy paid attention during school, Sam spent his days dreaming up new ways to annoy teachers. For instance, Sam's senior prank was throwing a party in the principal's backyard while he was out of town. Kristy's senior prank was… nonexistent.

But she did think of the Babysitters Club. And the Krushers.

The Krushers got their start as the oddest, most randomly constructed softball team that ever walked on to a field. No offense to Kristy, but who in their right mind puts a two-and-a-half year old on a softball team? Not one of her best ideas.

By the time I became a junior in high school, I was long overdue for a big project of my own. What I needed was motivation, and I got it when Myriah Perkins came back from working at a summer camp: tanned, toned, and perfect. Myriah had been a good friend for a long time. I had known her ever since her family moved into the house that I used to live in. I had always been too preoccupied with my usual guy stuff to really think about her.

Suddenly the usual guy stuff became thinking about Myriah. And one day, my need to impress Myriah suddenly collided with my need to demolish a certain idiot named Kyle Taylor.

"Daddy," I overheard Karen, my stepsister, say sweetly to her father on a Thursday morning before school. "Now, don't get upset, but… but a boy invited me to the movies on Friday night. Hannie and Ricky are going, too, and the movie is clean and appropriate and –"

"Sounds like a date to me," I chimed in helpfully, watching my stepfather furrow his brow in concern. Karen apparently didn't think so. She shot me a nasty look. I nearly choked on my cereal. Sitting on my left, my stepbrother Andrew wore a slight smirk.

"Now Karen, you know how I feel about dating at your age…"

_HA!_

"But you said Hannie and Ricky are going? Well, as long as it'll be a group function, Karen, I really don't see the harm in it. Make sure you're home by curfew."

_Dammit._

I was confused for a moment. Then it hit me that Watson and Mr. Taylor play golf together. And I remembered that Bart Taylor had taken Kristy to her senior prom. Watson must've figured that if Bart was okay, Kyle was okay.

I knew better. Andrew did too. After Karen flounced happily out of the room and Watson wandered off to look for Emily Michelle (adopted sister - my family's huge), my stepbrother leaned over to me. "Kyle has a reputation for being a bad ass, doesn't he?"

Now here's the thing. I like Andrew, but he can be incredibly naïve – even for an eighth grader. I blame Watson for sticking him in private school. I had to snicker at his word choice and the fact that he nearly whispered when he said ass.

Kyle was captain of the basketball and baseball teams at Stoneybrook Day School. Last year, he dated Amanda Delaney, an untouchable cheerleader. (She promptly dumped him after one month – her limit.) I knew all this without even going to the same school as the guy. And I knew that you didn't get a status like his without doing your fair share of partying.

Karen is a very pretty girl and a very good girl. Kyle, being Kyle, was obviously sick of the Amanda Delaney type. He was bored with girls who were already labeled bad. He wanted to turn a good girl bad instead. I just knew that was his motive with Karen. It made me sick.

I had to stop him somehow.


	2. Chapter 1

I pick up Nicholas Pike and his sisters on my way to school everyday. If ever there was a need for poster children to showcase the awkwardness of teen years, the Pikes would be first in line. Margo wears too much makeup and tweezes her eyebrows until she looks permanently surprised. Claire wears no makeup, but needs to because of her unfortunate acne problems. Nick always has on jeans that are too short because he grew like a weed this year. They make an interesting trio.

Each morning, we met up with another friend and another poster child for the tragically awkward – Jackie Rodowsky. Jackie literally trips three times before he says hello to us. For the Pikes, there is hope… a light at the end of the tunnel. One look at the triplets, Vanessa, and Mallory – their older siblings – and you know that they'll be alright in the end. For Jackie, this is not a phase; this is his life story.

But you know something? There's never a dull moment with Jackie around. Whenever he misses school due to some bizarre circumstance (…breaking his toes by dropping the shampoo bottle on them, coming down with a cold because he got locked out of his house), my day just feels incomplete.

"Are you trying out for the baseball team?" Jackie asked me on our way to homeroom. I shrugged noncommittally.

"You should," said Margo, enthusiastically. "I probably won't make the softball team, but it never hurts to try. Besides, you could be an alternate. Last year, I was an alternate. I went to two games."

"Did you play?" asked Jackie.

Margo stuck up her nose. "That's not really important," she said, disdainfully.

I always thought I was pretty good at sports until I went out for the school teams. A lot of the best players at Stoneybrook High School came from Kelsey Middle School. Hence, I had no idea what I was up against until my freshman year. Needless to say, I wasn't on the team during ninth grade. Last year, my sophomore year, I did make the team. Unfortunately, I had the cleanest pair of sliding pants in the dugout. Like Margo, I too sat the bench all season.

"The team needs lots of different roles," said Jackie matter-of-factly. He is the statistician for the baseball team. It's a pretty nerdy job. You have to admire the kid for his dedication, though. It's obvious that what he really wants to do is play.

Margo sighed. "No, I hate math, Jackie," she said. "I don't want to do your job for the girls. I'd rather be an alternate, if that's the best I can do." She shook her head sadly. "I miss the Krushers. Kristy let every kid play."

"Even Claire," Jackie sniggered.

"Yes, and eventually, Claire got a hit," Margo reminded us. "It was caught, but she was so proud of that moment. Did you know she kept the ball? We have it in our garage. It says 'Claire's first hit' on it."

"It should say, 'Claire's _only_ hit,'" Jackie retorted, looking smug.

"So, Jackie, did you keep that refreshment stand you knocked over?"

_My_ remark shut Jackie up in a hurry. Margo gave me a small smile.

"I sure do miss the old days," she said to me as we headed for our separate classes. I nodded sadly as she disappeared around the corner.

* * *

My brief exchange with Margo was utterly forgotten until the next evening. It was Friday and Karen was getting ready for her big date. Hannie came over right after school and the preparations began right away. Meanwhile, I waited in the family room for Nick, Jackie, and another good friend of ours, Buddy Barrett. Unfortunately, the snake Kyle Taylor arrived first. I got the task of letting him inside.

"Oh, hi," I said, with about as much enthusiasm as a trip to the orthodontist. "She and Hannie are getting ready. Where's Ricky?" I don't like Ricky Torres very much either, but I would take him over Kyle. He's just obnoxious, but I know for a fact that he's no player like Kyle.

"Waiting for a table at Chez Maurice," Kyle informed me. I wrinkled my nose; it was all I could do to keep from gagging. Ricky always did the grunt work for Kyle. I guess it was worth it to Ricky, if it meant he got to come along as the wingman on Kyle's dates.

"Hey, Kyle, news flash," I said, knowingly. "Watson can take Karen to that stuffy place anytime she wants. Normal guys take their dates to Pizza Express or something."

"Yeah?" said Kyle, with a smirk. "Is that where you're taking your date tonight, Davey?"

_I hate him._

"No date tonight," I replied quickly. "I have plans with the guys."

He continued to smirk at me. Before he could say anything else, Karen emerged from the upstairs bathroom, followed by Hannie. If you ask me, Karen looks her best when she wears no makeup, a hooded sweatshirt, and a ponytail. It could just be the influence of my older sister, who never liked to be dolled up, but I prefer a natural-looking girl. Karen and Hannie were anything but natural, wearing heels to make them taller, makeup to make their faces brighter, and probably lots of other things that guys are better off not knowing about.

"Hi, David Michael," Hannie said, seeing me for the first time that evening. I only see Hannie when she's at our house, since she goes to Stoneybrook Day School with Karen now. (Watson sent Karen, Andrew, and Emily Michelle to Stoneybrook Day School years ago. Mom left us Thomas kids where we were. It's been that way ever since.)

Hannie batted her eyelashes at me, and I remembered that Karen once said Hannie harbored a major crush on me. Most likely, she had settled for Ricky Torres to please Karen.

"Hey, Hannie," I said. "Good to see you. Have fun." Hannie is not my type at all, but I guess its flattering that she finds me appealing. I try to be nice to her (but not too nice), at any rate.

"We'll see," she said, so softly that only I heard her.

"Oh, I need my camera!" Karen exclaimed suddenly. "Be right back!" She scurried up the stairs. Hannie hesitated, and then hurried after her. She is forever Karen's follower.

"She wants pictures to remember this night," Kyle jeered. I stared straight ahead, my face expressionless. He edged closer to me, and then whispered. "I could make the night even more memorable."

"She won't give you the chance," I scoffed. "My stepsister is too smart to be fooled by you." Oh, how I hoped that was true.

"I get the feeling that you would rather Karen had nothing to do with me," Kyle pressed on, determined to get a rise out of me. "Why is that, Thomas? What have I ever done to you? I mean, besides kicking your ass on the baseball diamond when we were kids."

"I hardly think we can call those games fair," I said, pointedly. "You had a team with no girls and no little kids. We had kids who were four. We even had one who was younger than three. And we still managed to beat your team twice."

"With handicaps both times," Kyle argued. How this conversation had gone from Karen to the Krushers/Bashers rivalry, I did not know. "And remember, if you will, that Bart leveled the playing field in the second season. We added some girls to our team and some little kids. And we still owned you on the field."

"Congratulations, Kyle," I said. "You are officially stuck in the past."

"Yeah?" he retorted. "How come I never saw you on the field last year when Stoneybrook High played Stoneybrook Day?"

"I was hurt," I lied, thinking quickly. "Bad knee."

"Sorry to hear that," he said, dripping sarcasm from each word. "Do you think your knee would be up to a little challenge from me?"

"What… kind of challenge?"

"If you reform the Krushers, I'll reform the Bashers. I'll ask each member back that still lives in Stoneybrook, no matter how pathetic they were. And you can do the same."

Kyle was asking for a rematch? I was intrigued. I weighed my options quickly.

"Two conditions," I finally decided. "One, you have to play at least five girls at all times. That way, if you have ten on the field, half are girls. Two, I don't want to ask back those players that Kristy had to pick up temporarily. That means I don't have to ask back people like Moon Pickney or Alexandra DeLonge."

"I can live with those conditions," he said, amiably. "And what do I get when I win?"

"What do you want?" I asked, suspiciously.

"You… will go on a double date with Karen and me when the Bashers win," he said, looking sly. "You can take Hannie since she drools all over you anyway. Then Karen will see that you approve of me."

"WHAT?" I sounded as horror-stricken as I felt. "Why on _earth _do you want that?"

Kyle shrugged nonchalantly. "She values your approval, Davey." When I said nothing, he smirked. "Not too confident that you'll win, are you?"

"Of course we will," I narrowed my eyes, incensed by his last comment, and felt my chest swell with something like bravery. "And when we win, you will leave Karen alone. You will tell her that it just won't work out. Then you won't have anything else to do with her."

"Sounds fair to me," he said, though his smile faltered slightly. "And I'm looking forward to our double date already, Davey."

"You know, _Karen_ was a Krusher," I reminded him. "So was Hannie."

"Neither of them will play for you," he said, confidently. "I know Karen too well. She won't want to choose sides. And Hannie will do whatever Karen does."

"We'll see about that," I said, though I felt slightly doubtful.

"We have ourselves a bet then," said Kyle Taylor. "Shake hands?" Not breaking eye contact, I shook his hand, gripping it as hard as I could. I thought I saw him grimace slightly. As we did this, Karen and Hannie came downstairs. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see them both looking utterly bewildered.


	3. Chapter 2

I wasted no time in coming up with a list of former Krushers who were still living in Stoneybrook. However, Kyle proved to be right when Karen and Hannie said they just wouldn't feel right about playing against all their friends at Stoneybrook Day School.

"You little traitors," I said, angrily, when they refused to join. The girls just exchanged troubled looks, and Karen countered with a sincere apology. "Sorry, it does sound fun," she said. "But if you were in my position, you would understand, David Michael. It just isn't fair to Kyle." And Hannie simply nodded in agreement.

"Did you ask Amanda Delaney and her brother?" Hannie wanted to know. She looked extremely disappointed about not being able to play. "I mean, they go to school with Kyle and us so…"

"Yeah, they both said no," I replied flatly, recalling how uncomfortable it had been to visit their mansion. I had expected nothing more from the Delaney siblings. There absence suited me just fine because I wasn't sure I could trust either of them in the first place. They would probably just try to sabotage us. Luckily, neither Amanda nor Max was clever enough to think of this before turning me down.

My fourteen remaining players included three seniors, Nick, Buddy, and Jake Kuhn; three juniors, myself, Jackie, and Margo; two sophomores, Laurel Kuhn and the beautiful Myriah; three freshmen, Patsy Kuhn, Suzi Barrett and Claire; two eighth graders, my stepbrother Andrew and Jamie Newton; and a _sixth _grader, Gabbie Perkins.

Nick, Jackie, and Buddy were the first to know about the plan to reform the Krushers. They were all enthusiastic, but none more than Jackie. When I told Jackie, he threw his fist into the air and made contact with a low ceiling fan.

Buddy said that it was too bad his step-siblings, the DeWitts had never joined the Krushers. Taylor, Lindsey, and Madeleine would have been incredible assets to the team, all of them having athletic skill. Taylor was active in Little League while growing up. Lindsey and Madeleine were great tennis players; softball probably would have come naturally to them. I regretted having to inform Buddy that they couldn't play with us, according to the terms of the bet.

"Who else am I forgetting?" I said to myself on Sunday night, as I sat at the kitchen table, staring down at my jumbled list. Archie Rodowsky, Jackie's younger brother, had never played with the Krushers either and it was a shame. He too was a rather talented athlete. I remembered Marilyn Arnold playing with us at least once, but she and her twin sister had moved away three years ago.

"Matt Braddock?" asked Karen, looking over my shoulder. She couldn't seem to resist asking about the Krushers, in spite of not wanting to play herself. "Of course, we haven't seen him in ages..."

"Well, his school in Stamford closed a long time ago," I said, recalling that Matt left the Krushers halfway through our second season for this reason, when he and I were just eight years old.

"Oh, yeah…" she trailed off.

Forgetting that I was mad at Karen, I continued to talk to her. Looking up from my list, I turned around in my chair to face her. "Remember how we had a going away party for him? He went to some other school for the deaf. Only, his new school was a boarding school so he had to go live there." I tried to picture him now. "Matt was pretty cool, for a deaf kid."

Karen shook her head at me. "That sounds so prejudiced, David Michael," she scolded. "_For a deaf kid,_" she shook her head again. "He was cool for any kind of kid."

"Thank you, Miss Politically Correct," I bowed my head to her in mock reverence. "Come off it. You know what I mean. I liked Matt. It was just hard to talk to him, unless Haley or his mom helped. Or Jake Kuhn, I guess, he was pretty good at that signing stuff. You think Jake keeps in touch with him? "

Karen shrugged. "Do the Kuhns want to play?" she inquired. "Do any of them still play sports?"

"Jake does wrestling," I said. "That isn't much like softball, but at least it's something. Laurel, she's really brainy. I'm not sure if she'll play, but I hope so. We need girls. Kyle and I agreed to play five girls at all times."

"What are you trying to say?" Karen folded her arms and looked cross. "That girls aren't any good?"

I ignored her. "… And Buddy says that his sister already asked Patsy Kuhn. She says she wants to play, but she stinks at all sports other than cheerleading. Just like Suzi, another cheerleader. Is cheerleading even a sport?"

"Of course it is," said Karen, derisively. "All three Pikes want to play, right? And I guess the Barretts, too, and Jackie?"

"I have eight confirmed players," I informed Karen. "That's Andrew, me, Margo, Claire, Nick, Buddy, Suzi, and Patsy. I still need to ask Jake, Laurel, Myriah, Gabbie, and Jamie. I guess I could try to track down Matt. His family still lives in Stoneybrook. That would be good enough to qualify him for the team, according to the terms that Kyle and I agreed on."

"What do you even get from Kyle if you win?" Karen asked, narrowing her eyes and putting her hands on her hips. "What exactly are you betting?"

"Just pride, Karen," I said, for Kyle and I had mutually agreed upon this as a cover story. There was no way that Karen, Hannie, or anyone for that matter needed to know the truth. "Beating Kyle Taylor at something would make my year complete."

Karen opened her mouth, looking as though she was going to ask me another question. She was interrupted, however, by Andrew barreling down the stairs, holding the cordless phone and looking positively thrilled. "Jamie Newton will play!" he announced, cheerfully. "We have nine! That would be enough to make a team with three outfielders instead of four."

"Great!" I said, cheerfully. "And I feel confident that we'll get the Kuhns. That just leaves the Perkins…"

I really, really, really hoped Myriah Perkins would play.

* * *

On Monday, the first person I found was Laurel Kuhn. I came to school early because I knew exactly where to look – the library. Laurel was a library aide in the mornings. She could be found sitting behind the counter devouring a book on a daily basis. Sure enough, she was right where I knew she would be, with a book in hand. 

"Hi, Laurel," I said, conversationally.

"Hi, David Michael," she said, looking up from her reading and pushing up her glasses up on her nose. "How can I help you?"

"There's something I need to ask you…" I said, and I launched into an explanation of the Krushers. Call me judgmental, but I had fully expected Laurel to show no interest. I was absolutely stunned to see her beaming at me before I had even finished talking.

"I loved playing for your sister's team," she gushed. "I'm in! Actually, Patsy already mentioned it to me. She is so excited. You need to talk to my brother though. He may be harder to convince."

"Did you come to school with him?"

"I did," she replied. "He'll be in the gym right now, slamming some other guy on his face. He has wrestling practice before school."

"Okay," I said, uncertainly. "I guess I'll go ask him now."

"I would go with you, but nobody is here to cover for me in the library. Sorry. Best of luck, though, and if he needs extra convincing, Patsy and I can try to use our influence!"

I thanked her and headed for the gym. I had no idea of the amount of activity that went on in the gym before school, given that I was never required to come early for anything. The varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders were on one side building pyramids and doing stunts. Among them was Patsy Kuhn, Suzi Barrett, and… (my stomach flip-flopped)… Myriah. I was in the right place to collect the remaining members of my team.

I approached Jake first, as he twisted his teammate into a half Nelson. I stood back cautiously as Jake slammed the guy to the ground and pined him easily. Jake was easily twice my size, and I'm not a little guy myself. He would probably be able to hit the ball with a lot of force. I had the mental image of a wooden bat shattered into splinters as he made contact. Then I clearly saw the look of horror that would appear on Kyle's face. It brought a smirk to my face.

"Are you here to see me?" Jake had caught me staring at him, grinning stupidly.

"Uh, yeah," I said. "Hey there, Jake, how's it going? That was really good, that move you did to pin him. You must be pretty strong."

Jake just stared at me. I cleared my throat. "Uh, have your sisters told you about my team? About reforming the Krushers? (He nodded slightly.) Well, we could really use your help, Jake! Would you like to play?"

"I've been thinking about it," he said, slowly. "I don't know. Would we stand a chance against the Bashers now?"

"Well, we didn't stand a chance against them back then," I pointed out. "But, yes, I believe we would. We would need to practice, of course."

He nodded slowly, but the worried expression never left his face. I remembered that Jake used to get anxious playing on the Krushers. A few times, Nick and I were both sick or out, and Jake had to pitch. He nearly had an anxiety attack every time; Jake hated pitching because of all the pressure. It surprised me, honestly, that Jake even had enough confidence to wrestle.

"The problem is that I run pretty slow…" he said, looking down at his feet.

"This isn't basketball or soccer, Jake," I reassured him. "Those sports require speed. Softball doesn't, especially if you play certain positions. And if you can slam a ball out of the park like you slammed Doug here on the ground, I think we're in business." (I ignored a nasty look from Doug.)

Jake smiled slightly at that. "My therapist does encourage me to try new things," he said, matter-of-factly. I could think of nothing else to say to that so I was glad when Jake slapped me on the back (nearly knocking me to the ground) and said, gleefully, "What the heck! You've got yourself another player, Thomas!"

"Great!" I strained to say, for the breath had been knocked out of me. I grinned at him and began to walk away. Then, remembering the other thing I needed to ask Jake, I spun on my heels and called out, "Hey, Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you keep in touch with Matt Braddock?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "You bet," he said. "Matt's still one of my best friends. We talk online all the time."

"I was just wondering if it would be at all possible for Matt to join us. I know he goes to school somewhere else, but…"

"You know what?" Jake interrupted. "I just remembered this. Matt will be home on break starting next week. His school is a year-round school so they get breaks throughout the year. I think he gets three whole weeks!"

"Awesome!" Matt Braddock was our best hitter when he played. I hoped that he was still just as good as he was back then. "You think he'll do it then?"

"Oh, I'll convince him, if I have to," Jake said, sounding uncharacteristically confident. "But Matt loved the Krushers. I think playing meant more to him than anyone else on the team. You know… because we were regular kids and we accepted him."

Jake was one of those strong-yet-sensitive types. Talking about Matt's feelings made me feel uncomfortable so I simply told Jake I was glad to hear it and got away from him as quickly as I could. I had two more players to seek out, and one of them was in the room with me.

As I turned, I nearly ran right into her. She dodged to her right as I dodged to my left. We both laughed uncomfortably, but then darted to the left and right simultaneously. Finally, I took a step back and stood still. She did the same.

"I heard about the Krushers from Suzi and Patsy," said Myriah, a bit breathlessly. "I just came over here to say that I'll join and I'm sure Gabbers will as well. I know she's just in sixth grade, but Gabbers is really good. You won't be sorry you asked her."

Having lost the chance to use my memorized speech informing Myriah of the team, I could do nothing but nod. Myriah grinned and watched me expectantly, waiting for me to speak. I could not make my mouth form the words. At a total loss, I settled for giving Myriah the thumbs up sign.

"Great," she said, looking puzzled. "Well… see you, David Michael!" She flounced off, her blond ponytail swinging gracefully as she left my presence.

I turned around again to see Jake still watching me. When I caught his eye, he smirked and gave me the thumbs up. I blushed furiously and whirled around to stalk out of the gym. As I walked away, I could hear Jake and Doug laughing appreciatively at my expense.

* * *

_A/N: Please let me know if I missed a former player. I could always write it off by saying they moved, like the Arnold twins. Did the DeWitts ever play in later books? If anything is inaccurate, I will go back and correct myself. Thanks for the reviews!_


	4. Chapter 3

"Need any help, David?"

My adopted sister, Emily Michelle, calls me only by my first name while the rest of the world calls me by both. In return, I simply call her Emily. I'm still not sure why we do this. It started a long time ago. I never thought much of it until recently, but isn't it rather childish to be called by your first and middle name? I'm still not sure what I prefer. My sister's best friend was Mary Anne Spier and would have never wanted to simply be called 'Mary.' I think Emily Michelle is like me; she can't decide if she wants to be called by two names or one.

Whoops, that was a long ramble. Sorry, folks.

"I know Sam and Charlie left their old gloves in the attic," I peered down out of the attic into the garage and spotted her looking up at me. "I just found our bats. Here, Em, would you take these?

"Gabbie told me about the Krushers today," said Emily Michelle as I passed the bats down to her. "She said she's going to be the only sixth grader on the team since she was the youngest Krusher. I wish I could be on it, too."

"You do?" I replied, surprised. "But you don't play sports."

"I could, though," was her answer. "You don't have to be good to be a Krusher, right? (I sneered at her and she blushed.) Oops, sorry. Hey, at least let me hang out at the practices? I promise not to be in the way."

"I-ah-ah-AH-CHOO!" There was a lot of dust in the attic. I sniffed and rubbed my nose. "Sure, you doe I dun bind." I continued to dig through the box labeled 'SPORTS' until I found my brothers' old gloves. I tossed them down to Emily. It caught her offguard and Sam's mit clocked her on the head.

"That's what you get for making fun of us Krushers," I said, teasingly, as I climbed out of the attic. "We're going to bash those Bashers into the ground. I wonder if Kyle even has his team together yet."

"He does. Karen's going to go watch them practice tomorrow."

"WHAT?"

Emily Michelle shrugged. "I wonder if Charlie will give his old glove to Casey when he's older. That would be a sweet father-son gift, don't you think?"

"I cannot lose to Kyle Taylor," I said, through gritted teeth, ignoring my little sister's attempts to change the subject. "There's too much at stake!"

"What's at stake?" she wondered innocently.

"Everything," I muttered, stalking through the garage and yanking the door open. As I entered the house, I could hear the phone ringing. It stopped and, in a moment, Karen's voice rang out: "David Michael, for you!"

"Hi, David Michael, this is Haley Braddock," said Haley, when I picked up. "Matt's sister. Jake Kuhn's told him about the team, and he's just told me. He wants to play."

"Fantastic," I said, feeling slightly encouraged at this bit of news. "We need all the help we can get. Do they play sports at his deaf school?" (Was that an offensive question? I wondered.)

"Sure they do," said Haley, who thankfully didn't seemed phased by my lack of diplomacy. "And baseball is his favorite. He says he's going to start warming up right away. He comes home on Friday. When do you start practicing?"

"Tomorrow," I decided right then, thinking of Kyle Taylor and his stupid Bashers. I could only hope that my teammates' schedules weren't too full to fit in daily practices.

"Need any cheerleaders?" she asked, good-naturedly. "I still live in Stoneybrook. Lame, I know, but community college is affordable."

I grinned. "Cheerleaders would be great," I said. "But only if you'll promise to come dressed as the Three Stooges."

"You had to hand it to us," she retorted. "Weird, but brilliant."

"Ingenious," I agreed.

"Well, hey," she said. "Keep us posted on the practices. I'll try to come to the first few if you need an interpreter, but I think Jake Kuhn could manage the job just fine."

"I will," I replied. "Thanks, Haley."

Seconds after Haley and I hung up, the phone rang again. Since I was still sitting by it, I picked up right away. "Hello?"

_"DAVID MICHAEL THOMAS, YOU HAVE SOME NERVE! Who do you think you are? Recycling my idea WITHOUT TELLING ME FIRST!"_

"Hi, Kristy."

"Well," she huffed impatiently. "You'll be inviting me to your big game against the Bashers, won't you? You wouldn't leave your old, forgotten sister out of that, would you?"

"You've got front row seats."

I could tell she was beaming. "Make me proud, kiddo."

* * *

"Thank you all for being here on such short notice," I said to my newly-assembled team the very next day, the day of our first practice together in nine years. To my right, Laurel had two text books stacked in her lap. She had shown up, in spite of two upcoming exams for her AP classes this week. To my left, Suzi and Patsy seemed to be practicing the arm movements for a cheer. 

"We need as much practice as we can get," I went on. "The Bashers are probably doing the same thing. I will be here everyday this week. I won't make practices mandatory... yet. But the more we do now, the better we'll be later." (Front and center, Jake already looked anxious.)

"... So, let's play Round Robin. Three on the bench to bat and... just take any position, except I want Nick to try pitching first. We'll worry about deciding positions later."

The first person up to bat was Jake. And the first thing that happened was that Jake hit a foul ball with such force that it took us five minutes to find it and dig it out of a throny bush. After Jake's turn, the batters just got worse. Claire was still the Strike Out Queen. Jamie Newton no longer ducked the balls because he was too tall and lanky. Now he had developed a habit of leaping backwards and out of the batter's box anytime the ball looked slightly less than perfect.

"Jamie, that would have been in the strike zone, too," I said, weakly, after his fifth giant leap out of the box. At least Nick's pitching was on target. "Plant your feet next time."

Myriah had been right about her sister. Even though Gabbie was the youngest player, she was turning out to be rather impressive. She had chosen to play shortstop when we first took the field. True, she was a pixie of a girl, but she certainly was agile. She darted quickly between second and third base and knew all the rules involved with her position. Watching her, I felt encouraged. Maybe if we had all learned to play softball before the age of three, we would have had Gabbie's talent too.

Finally, it was my turn to bat. I hit the ball straight to Jackie, who was playing third base. It literally bounced right into his glove, and I slowed up on my run to first. With a hit like that, the batter was almost always going to be thrown out. But, alas, I had forgotten who I was up against. Jackie sent the ball sailing over Andrew's head and nearly pegged a biker who was innocently pedaling past the field. As I reluctantly ran to second and stopped (a ground-rule double), our secondbasewoman greeted me with applause.

"Great hit, David Michael," said Myriah, encouragingly.

Again, it was as though my tongue had glued itself to the roof of my mouth. I just nodded vigorously. At least, I thought woefully, my thumb had not been sticking up into the air. Behind me, someone coughed loudly, as though covering up laughter. I looked to the outfield to find Jake smirking at me as if to say he knew my secret.

"Good game, everyone!" I finally said, clapping my hands the way Kristy used to do when she ended our practices. "I'll be here tomorrow, same time, same place." And then I motioned for everyone to meet in the middle. I stuck out my hand and everyone added their hands to make a pile.

"Bash those Bashers, on three. One, two, three."

"BASH THOSE BASHERS!"

And somehow Jackie got smacked in the face.

* * *

"You acted really nervous around Myriah," said Emily Michelle to me as we were doing dishes together after dinner. "I was talking to Gabbie earlier. We both want to know, do you like her or something?" 

"Nervous?" I sputtered. "How was I acting nervous?"

"David, who do you think you're kidding? I'm in the sixth grade. I know what boys do when they like girls. One of two things. If they're immature, they pester them and, like, steal their pencils or something. If they're shy, they try their hardest not to talk to the girl! Do you realize that you talked to everyone else when it was their turn to bat and gave out tips and stuff? Then, when it was _her _turn, you didn't even tell her to choke up! Whatever that means."

"Well, she was doing a good job."

"Uh-huh, right," she shot back, grinning like a maniac.

I sighed. "What happened to you, Em? You turned teenager on me overnight. Whatever you do, just make sure you've got better taste than your sister when it comes to guys, okay?"

Emily narrowed her eyes. "This whole thing... reforming the teams... it wouldn't happen to have something to do with... with Kyle and Karen, would it? Did it start because of them?"

"What were you doing, eavesdropping?"

"Again, David Michael," she sighed impatiently and used the double-namer on me, as she often did when she was being sassy. "You're going to have to realize that I'm in the sixth grade, and I know what's going on now. I don't have to eavesdrop to get information."

"Would you do me a favor and be a little kid again?"

"Can't. Aging. It's irreversible."

"No kidding."

"Just make some attempt at conversation with Myriah next time," she said, tossing her dish towel at me after she had dried the last plate. "Don't be so obvious, kay?" And at that, she tossed her jet black hair over her shoulder and left me standing, bewildered, at the sink, wondering where my sweet little sister had gone.


	5. Chapter 4

As promised, I went to Brenner's Field every single day that week. On Tuesday, everyone turned up except for Laurel, Patsy, and Suzi. The younger girls had a game to cheer for. Laurel had a huge test in Physics, and I could hardly blame her for skipping practice. (I didn't even know sophomores could take Physics.) On Wednesday, Nick had come down with 24-hour virus and stayed home. On Thursday, Margo and Claire reportedly caught the virus from Nick and stayed home. Buddy had to leave all practices early for his job at the Rosebud Cafe. I was pleased to see, however, that no one skipped without good reason. Jake adamently told me that nothing was more important to him than our practices.

Friday finally came, the day that Matt would be joining us. We held practice a bit late on Friday in order for him to be on time. Emily Michelle, ever the preteen, pointed out that it was Friday night and said we ought to have a team party afterwards. As team manager (she had given herself the title two days earlier), she put herself to work organizing a party. It amazed me how much she ended up taking after Kristy, even though we weren't blood relatives. In spite of forbidding herself to play on the team, Karen had no qualms against hanging out with the group. Hannie, being Hannie, gladly joined Karen. The two of them promptly volunteered to help Emily Michelle by accompanying her to buy food and by planning the entertainment for the night.

"It's great, isn't it?" Margo remarked, as she, Nicky, and Claire jogged to catch up with Andrew and I on our way to Friday's practice. "I think it's so nice that the Krushers has brought us all together again. Kristy would be so proud!"

Kristy might not be so proud if she knew about the bet between Kyle Taylor and myself, I thought bitterly. It was turning out to be more pressure than I'd bargained for. The more I watched our practices, the more I worried that I would be accompanying Hannie, Kyle, and Karen on their next trip to Chez Maurice.

Margo obviously didn't care how good we were. She was more interested in the social aspect of our team. She was happy that Suzi and Patsy were hanging out with Claire again. She liked having something in common with Laurel, whom she had once counted as her best friend. I knew all this because she had confided it to me on Thursday at lunch.

"Kristy wants to come to our game," I informed Margo.

"Speaking of which," Margo interjected. "When is it?"

"Last night, I asked Kyle for two weeks," I said. "And he gave it to me. So - two weeks from tomorrow." I recalled last night's uncomfortable phone call and how Kyle had confidently informed me that his team didn't need any practice to beat us. ("But if you need to _beg_ for extra time, fine. It'll just be that much more pathetic when we beat you!") Ugh. I loathed him.

"Two weeks! Two weeks! Two weeks!" I'd never seen Margo so wound up. It was possible that she was enjoying the Krushers more than anyone. I thought of Margo tagging along to countless school games as an alternate and longing for her own chance to prove herself. I couldn't help feeling guilty when I considered the impurity of my own motives. What would Margo think of me if she knew? "Two weeks until our game!"

Squealing with the news, she immediately ran to join a huddle that contained Suzi, Laurel, and Patsy. The girls appeared to favor chatting over warming up before practice. Buddy and Jackie, however, were off to the side, throwing a ball back and forth to warm themselves up. And next to them, Jake was already warming up with none other than Matt Braddock. I recognized him immediately as the older version of a kid I used to know.

Seated in the stands nearby was his sister, Haley. I noticed that she was wearing her old Krushers shirt that she used to cheer in (a particularly tight fit now) with a pair of holey jeans. Her hair was dyed much darker now, and she wore it in a short, trendy style. Haley was cooler than I remembered her being in high school. In high school, wasn't her hair bleached, long, and stringy? Didn't she wear baggy clothes and keep to herself a lot? The Haley that I vaguely remembered was different than the girl sitting here now.

"Check it out; I've got my team spirit!" Haley announced, rising from her seat and gesturing to her shirt. She quickly signed what she had just spoken to her brother. Matt paused in the middle of throwing the ball back to Jake and dropped his arm to his side instead. He smiled somewhat apprehensively at us. Matt had the physical appearance of an athlete with his slightly muscular build and hair buzzed very short. The hearing aids behind each ear caught my attention because I was sure he didn't have them when we were little.

"Hey, Haley, Hey Matt," I said, approaching him. I stuck out my hand and looked to Haley to supply a translation as I spoke to him. "Welcome back, Matt. We're really glad to have you on the team."

He shook my hand firmly, then signed something rapidly. Haley voiced for him right away. "It's great to be here," she said, then chuckled as she added. "By the way, I'm Matt. You were looking at Haley just then. I know it must be confusing for you since we have the same voice."

My teammates laughed as Matt grinned slyly, looking proud of his joke. I could tell it was going to be fun having him on the team, even if talking to him was going to be an interesting experience. I supposed that I would need to learn a thing or two about political correctness. I could always ask Karen, the self-proclaimed expert.

"Round Robin," I announced, clapping my hands. "And Matt, you can hit first." I made sure to look at him rather than Haley. His eyes darted over to his sister, and then back to me. Having been informed, he nodded quickly and picked up his bat.

To my complete surprise, Matt swung and missed the first two pitches. He looked thoroughly disgusted with himself. He backed out of the box and took a few practice swings. From behind the plate where I was playing catcher at the time, I watched him closely. I shifted my gaze over to Jake, our pitcher, who shrugged. I held my breath for the last pitch and let it out in a sigh of relief when it did not come back to me. Instead, Matt sent it sailing deep into the corner of right field and made it to third base before Buddy signaled for him to hold up.

"Alright, Matt!" I shouted, throwing off my catcher's mask. Following the rules of Round Robin, it was my turn to sit in the stands and wait for a turn to bat. I practically skipped to my seat. I was so delighted that we finally had our secret weapon. And I was proven right for thinking that Matt's performance would inspire the rest of the team. Jamie Newton stepped up to bat and instead of jumping away from the ball, he bravely swung at the first pitch. He missed by a mile, but I didn't even care. I cheered just as loudly for Jamie.

Haley was seated on the other side of the bench. She smile politely at me, then scooted down to where I was. I watched her cautiously out of the corner of my eye. "You reminded me of Kristy just then," she said, conversationally. "How is she?"

"Kristy's great," I told her. "She's about to graduate from UConn soon. And she's been on a scholarship for softball during all four years. And she just starting dating some guy. I haven't met him yet, but she might bring him home to meet us all soon."

"Matt dated this girl at his school for awhile," said Haley. "I never got to meet her. By the time he came home for a visit, they were already broken up. Hard being left out, isn't it?"

"I-I don't really know," I stammered, uncomfortably. I glanced at Matt, who was fielding a throw to first base. He expertly kept one foot planted on the base so that Margo was out the very second the ball touched his glove. "How long has he had those hearing aids?"

"Oh, those," she replied, her expression changing instantly. "He got them right before he started his new school. It was... well, not a rule... but it was strongly suggested that he get an evaluation before school started. We never thought hearing aids would be of much use to him. This doctor seemed to think otherwise, and he convinced my parents to get them for Matt. He convinced Matt to want them, too. I think that was the main reason we did it. I'm pretty sure Matt thought they would do more than they actually did. When he first got them, he cried for a long time. He was so disappointed. Still, he kept wearing them. It was probably because he wanted to fit in at his new school. They actually _do_ help some, but not as much as he was led to believe. I can't help but think of him crying miserably everytime I see those hearing aids."

"Oh..." I was _very_ sorry I'd asked. I quickly searched for an escape and spotted Claire Pike stepping up to bat. "Hey, Claire, remember - choke up!"

"How about I choke _you_ instead?" was her haughty reply.

"She hasn't changed," commented Haley, grinning. We watched Claire take a wild swing at three pitches and miss every single one. When she was finished batting, she stomped past us on her way out to left field. I was pretty sure I heard her mutter,"No fair."

What I heard next was horrible. Laughter erupted from the fence. Ricky Torres and Kyle Taylor stood with their noses against the wire fence. Claire Pike promptly gave them both the finger from left field. I rose from my seat immediately and headed over to the fence.

"Leave," I said through clenched teeth.

"Relax, Davey," said Kyle, wearing a wide grin. "We simply planned to use the field today. We had no idea you'd be here. But, hey, you were here first. It's all yours."

"Great," I said, flatly. "So leave."

"Isn't that Pig Pen?" asked Ricky. Kyle immediately burst out laughing and gave Ricky a high five. I whirled around to see if Jackie had noticed their presence. It would surely shake him up and cause some sort of catastrophy. Luckily, he was oblivious to the outside world, concentrated soley on doing his best. I watched and waited in anticipation, ignoring the snide comments from Ricky and Kyle. Nick delived the pitch... and Jackie sent it flying over his head! As it sailed over Matt's head, Matt let out a loud, delighted whoop. It sounded like a peculiar combination of a cow's moo and a pig's snort.

While Jackie was busy running the bases, Ricky hit his knees, doubling over in laughter. Priceless!" exclaimed Kyle, between chuckles, as he was wiping tears away. "I guess your plan is what exactly? Keep us laughing hysterically so we lose?"

I was about to answer when a softball whizzed right past my ear. It scored a direct hit on Kyle's nose, which was still pressed against the fence. Blood immediately poured out of his nostrils as Ricky stepped back in horror. Kyle covered his hand with his face, his eyes growing wide. "You'll pay for this!" he yelled in fury. He whirled around and stalked off in a fit of rage. Ricky continued to stare past me in horror for a few more seconds, and then he took off after Kyle.

I turned, in sheer disbelief, to find a very sheepish-looking Haley seated in the stands. She sank down in her seat

" Would you believe... that I thought you'd catch it?"


	6. Chapter 5

"Welcome to the Krushers' Reunion Bash!" Emily Michelle cried happily, as the team crowded in through the open door. The party came alive as fifteen people filed inside. Behind her, Karen raised her eyebrows and immediately scrambled into the kitchen, presumably to double check the food.

"Not a _bash,"_ said Claire, who was still annoyed about the incident with Kyle and possibly also the fact that her batting average for the season was still zero. "Pick another word, puh-lease!"

"Oops!" Emily Michelle blushed as she stepped back to give the crowd some room. "Hey! Gabbers!" She looked relieved to see her fellow sixth grader among the group of older kids.

"We have a great buffet for you in here!" announced Karen, calling from the kitchen. "If anybody wants to wash up, there are bathrooms upstairs with clean towels. I put some movies in the den. And David Michael?" she said, spotting me. "Hannie needs your help choosing a movie." And then Karen winked.

"Right after I clean up!" I said, realizing that I reeked and that no one would miss me if I escaped for a quick spit bath. A spit bath, if you haven't heard that term, is when you just sort of splash water and soap on the sweatiest parts of your body and then add deodorant and cologne. Charlie taught me about spit baths. He takes his spit baths very seriously. He even carries around soap, deodorant, and cologne in his car.

After my unceremonious spit bath, I changed into clean clothes and headed back downstairs. The party had split into small groups, spread out in the dining room, the kitchen, and the living room. Emily Michelle and Gabbie were perched on the kitchen cabinets while Jamie and Andrew sat at the barstools, looking much more comfortable than they did when they were surrounded by high school kids. I slipped in quietly and sat on a barstool, pretending that I was interested in a gossipy conversation about Jenny Prezzioso.

Gabbie stopped, mid-rant, and eyed me curiously. "Joining _us_?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

She glanced furtively (cool word, no?) at Emily Michelle and giggled in true sixth-grade girl form. "We just thought you might have other plans," she said. Her eyebrows wiggling up and down, she added. "Plans to talk to the other Perkins, perhaps?"

"I might," I said, casually.

"David Michael, I understand," Gabbie said to me, placing her hand on my shoulder, and she would have looked very serious if not for the amused smirk she wore. "You aren't the first. What is there not to love about a blue eyed, blond haired dancer?"

"I hardly think you should trust my sister," I said, defensively. Emily Michelle put her hand over her heart in mock bewilderment. "She tends to mix up what she sees in real life with what she reads in _Teen Beat._"

"Me?" cried Emily Michelle. "Why do you assume it was me? Andrew blabbed."

"But we all noticed, dude," added Jamie helpfully.

"Myriah has that effect on boys," Gabbie observed. "But you definitely have the right idea, not springing your affections on her. She has that complex where she doesn't know that she's pretty. So if someone says something, she gets all embarrassed. Kind of disgusting, if you ask me."

"Sounds kind of _jealous_, if you ask me," quipped Emily.

"No way!" cried Gabbie. "I have no use for a boyfriend right now. He would just cry if I beat him in sports. But when I change my mind, chances are, I'll be a knockout when I'm fifteen, too."

"Or you'll just _knock_ someone out for looking at you the wrong way," laughed Emily. Gabbie shrugged, and then laughed, too.

"You know, on second thought, I think I'll go," I said.

"Oh, David Michael, come on!" exclaimed Emily. "We didn't mean to run you off."

"Stay, please," begged Gabbie. "And I'll leave you alone. And don't worry, I keep secrets. I wouldn't dream of telling Myriah!"

"Telling Myriah what?" asked a female voice. I whipped around in my seat to see Haley coming into the room. She grinned at me, then asked, "Do you have diet soda? Anything will do. I like the taste of it."

"Gross," I remarked. "And yeah, we have some cans of it in the fridge. Go ahead and help yourself."

"Thanks," she said, and after she had grabbed a can of Diet Dr. Pepper out of our fridge, she plopped herself down on the last barstool, making this a very diverse group of four middle schoolers, myself, and a college student.

"Doesn't Matt need your help?" asked Andrew. "Talking to people, I mean."

"Usually, yes," said Haley, brightly. "Jake knows more sign than I thought he did, though. And we have one other signer at this party." She nodded to Gabbie. "I didn't know your sister knew so much sign language."

Gabbie grinned. "She was really excited to use her skills," she said. "So then she can talk to him well enough for him to understand?"

"See for yourself," replied Haley.

I got up from my stool and followed the others to the doorway, intrigued. Sure enough, sitting in the living room, caught up in their own conversation were Myriah, Matt, and Jake. At that moment, Matt was watching Myriah sign. She signed slowly, occasionally pausing to think of a sign or turning to ask Jake.

From behind me, Haley giggled, also watching the scene."Oops, she messed up something. That didn't make much sense. Oh, well. Matt will figure it out." Sure enough, after thinking for a moment, Matt signed something back to her. He moved his hands very slowly for Myriah and Jake's benefit.

"She learned some for dance class a long time ago," Gabbie was telling Haley. "Then she got hooked and wanted to learn more so she signed up for a real class."

"Matt definitely looks impressed," Haley commented. "It isn't too often that he meets hearing girls who sign. In fact, I think he's more than just impressed. I think –"

"Myriah has that effect on boys," Gabbie interjected. Then, remembering me, she spun around quickly. "Oh, no…"

I had to get out of there. I backed away slowly. "Please… don't say anything else," I said, feebly. With that, I hurried to make my escape. I just needed a second alone to recover from the embarrassment of _everyone_ knowing my secret and everyone watching me lose my chance with Myriah to Matt. The house was much too crowded for this luxury. Instead, I met Karen and Hannie on the stairs as I was headed for my bedroom.

Karen was fuming. "I just talked to Kyle," was all she said.

"Karen, he brought it on himself..."

"Oh, really?" she raged. "That bitch is lucky his nose isn't broken!" And with that, she tried to get around me, presumably to go confront Haley. I blocked her way.

"Karen, it's not worth it," Hannie protested meekly from behind.

Karen tried to get around me again, but I wouldn't let her pass. Finally, after several attempts, she rooted herself to the spot and fumed. Hannie coaxed her gently, saying, "Karen, just go upstairs, calm yourself down. Emily Michelle, David Michael, and I will handle the party."

"You would think there were more of us," I attempted to joke. Karen wouldn't dare crack a smile. She continued to fume, although I could see that she was running out of steam. Maybe Kyle wasn't worth making a huge scene at the party. I could only hope that she was thinking this way.

"Ugh!" She threw her hands up in disgust. "Fine!" With every movement done in the most dramatic fashion imaginable, she stomped up the stairs and slammed the door so hard that the walls in the house shook. For a horrible second, I wondered if Gabbie thought that I had done that. I could just imagine her telling Myriah - _"you broke his heart!" _I closed my eyes.

I almost forgot about Hannie, who was still standing there. "David Michael?" she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay? Don't let Karen ruin your party. It is _your _team party, not hers."

I smiled slightly. "Thanks, Hannie."

She beamed back at me. "You're welcome. You know, I- I'm really sorry I'm not on the Krushers. Really sorry. It looks like a lot of fun. I just, well, you know…"

"Hannie, it's okay."

"I just… really, really _wanted _you to know that."

"Yeah, I know."

She paused. "Okay," she said, awkwardly twirling one of her dark ringlets on her finger. "Well, that's all I wanted to say then. I think I'll go make some cookies."

"Sounds great," I said, leaning against the banister and resting my head on the wall, closing my eyes again. I could hear Hannie breathing and knew that she was still standing there.

"David Michael, I-I wanted to ask you something…"

I opened my eyes again. "What?" I asked, almost afraid of what would follow.

She paused. "Chocolate chip or sugar cookie? You-you have both."

Oh, I knew that tactic. I knew it well. Chicken out, then distract. "Chocolate chip."

"Yeah, thanks," she said, a bit dejectedly, and with that, she headed downstairs. I knew how she felt. I wondered how I could knowingly put someone through the agony I was feeling. Then I wondered what made me like Myriah so much in the first place. I hardly knew her. Just like Hannie hardly knew me.

I resigned myself to spending the rest of the evening keeping Karen away from Haley. Eventually, she did calm done enough to say that she wouldn't do anything. Meanwhile, Myriah talked to Matt all evening. (Eventually, I think Jake gave up on being the third wheel. I saw him talking to Nick and Buddy later on.)

For that reason, when Hannie's chocolate chip cookies were done, I helped myself six.


	7. Chapter 6

Afterthe disaster that was Friday, the following week did improve – for the team, not for my love life. My teammates were showing new determination, and it was their spirit that made me realize why we had once been real competition for the Bashers. We were chosen to be Krushers in the first place for that very spirit, that very determination. And Kristy had seen it in us all along.

As I said, my love life did _not _improve. Instead, I watched Matt and Myriah sign back and forth at our practices. There was a certain spark between them. Everyone was seeing it, and everyone was talking about it. On Wednesday, I overheard Claire talking to Myriah about what a cute couple they were. The worst part for me was that Myriah just smiled and never bothered to correct Claire for calling them a couple. Or maybe the worst part was the look of sympathy I received from Gabbie who happened to be nearby.

Still, I could comfort myself with the fact that whatever was happening between Matt and Myriah would have to end as soon as Matt went back to his special school. I really hated to resent the guy, especially when we had once been such good friends. But I couldn't say that I would be sorry to see him leave us. I would kind of miss having Haley around though. She was pretty cool.

On Thursday of the team's second week together, there was talk of another Friday night gathering. This time, everyone agreed on going out for dinner as a group. "I say we should have another early practice," Patsy Kuhn suggested as we huddled together. "Then we can go home and get showers. That should take, oh, two hours? Then we meet up again. Maybe carpool to Stamford?"

"Two hours?" exclaimed Jackie, looking bewildered. "For a shower?"

"For a shower, drying your hair, putting on makeup, and getting dressed," replied Suzi Barrett, without missing a beat. Her brother opened his mouth to protest, but caught her eye and wisely made the last minute decision to say nothing. He and I both live with sisters, and we both know enough to know not to argue with their beauty regiments. 

That was when I saw Myriah sign something to Matt. Matt nodded and signed something back. I noticed Jake Kuhn watching them, too. Since he was sitting right next to me, I poked him in the side. "What did they say to each other?"

"She asked him if they could change their plans to Saturday night and he agreed," said Jake. He frowned. "Gee, that stinks. I was going to ask Matt to come play XBox with me on Saturday night."

"That _does_ stink," I muttered.

Jake looked surprised. "Oh, no, it isn't really a big deal," he said, thickly. "I mean, Matt and I could play another night. It isn't every night he gets to go out on a date."

And that was how I found out that in less than a week, Matt had managed to score a date with her, with the girl of _my _dreams. I would never have had the nerve. The guy never said a word and still his powers of persuasion were better than mine. The awful green monster gnawed at my insides, making me secretly miserable. The green monster was also fanning a flame within me, and I burned with a strong desire to beat, nay – KRUSH – Kyle and the rest of the Bashers. I was hungry for victory. I was ready to taste it.

On Friday night, however, I tasted particularly spicy plate of enchiladas and enjoyed my company immensely. I wound up riding with Haley, Buddy, Jackie, Gabbie, and Emily Michelle. We all sat on the same end of a very long table at dinner. Jackie accidentally knocked over his coke twice, but the waitress never got upset with him. Instead, the waitress actually_ flirted_ with him and called him _sweetheart._ This was too funny for Gabbie to ignore. I nearly choked as Gabbie did a spot-on impression of the waitress and fawned over Jackie, whose skin tone suddenly matched his flaming red hair.

At the other end of the table were Jake, Myriah, and Matt. Jake only jumped in every now and then to make a few signs. Mostly, it looked like he was simply a third wheel on their date. At one point, Jake actually moved to our end of the table and hung out for awhile, leaving Matt and Myriah on their own.

I guess I must have been staring. Eventually, Haley tapped my arm.

"How much is that bothering you?" she asked, narrowing her eyes in scrutiny of me.

"What?" I replied, instinctively, before remembering that all the girls I knew were (a) mind-readers or (b) blabber-mouths or (c) both of the above. I sighed. "Maybe the better question is, how obvious am I?" I hung my head in shame.

"I knew you liked Myriah because of how you reacted when you first saw her flirt with Matt, David Michael," she stated, matter-of-factly. I nodded, feeling fairly sure that she had, in fact, used her mind-reading abilities to decipher my feelings.

"Well, it looks like Matt has charmed her with his… with his…" I trailed off. "Well, if I knew, I would have done it first. So does it matter?"

She leaned across the table as thought to reveal a secret to me. "He charmed her with his deafness," she stated, quite bluntly. "So, no, David Michael, you couldn't have done what Matt did. He did nothing, except be deaf. I see it a lot with hearing girls who have fallen in love with sign language."

Feeling a strange need to defend Myriah's motives, I quickly disagreed with Haley. "How can you say that? Myriah would never be that… that shallow!"

"She didn't make a conscious decision to like him because he's deaf," Haley replied quickly. "I'm not accusing her of doing anything wrong. I've just see this happen." She paused. "I've _had _this happen. To _me._ Okay?"

"Okay," I answered, feeling foolish for having argued with her. Her face had turned a bit pink when she shared the last detail, as if she had given away more information than she intended. She just nodded and went back to eating. I joined in on another conversation and all was forgotten for awhile. 

Then I caught Haley staring at them. I followed her eyes to Matt and Myriah, and then returned to find that Haley had taken note of me again. She explained, "I was trying to figure them out… maybe I was wrong, I don't know… time will tell."

"What do you mean, 'time will tell?'" I asked. "He goes back to his school after his break ends. He only comes home when his school is on break."

"Not if he decides otherwise," she explained. "There is a program at his school that helps high school students become mainstreamed into regular schools if they get the grades to do it. Well, he finally earned the grades. Now he just has to make the choice. His school will arrange for him to have all the accommodations he needs to do his senior year at Stoneybrook High School."

"Oh…" I gazed wistfully down the table at Myriah again. "Well, if I were him, I would take that opportunity. And if he does, he'll need her. I mean, if I could only talk to _one_ girl and it was _her,_ I would feel the same way."

Haley pressed her lips together tightly, looking pained. I noticed that I had done something to make her eyes glisten very brightly. Feeling confused, I quickly handed her my napkin. She dabbed at her eyes and continued to stare at me for a few moments.

Oh, how it sucked to make them cry… even in a good way. I would much rather make them laugh, smile, anything else. Mister Sensitive… yeah, that was me now.

* * *

It rained hard on Saturday and I consented to cancel practice. It continued on into Monday. By then, we were less than a week away from our big game. I couldn't afford to let the rain get in the way of practice again. We got permission to use the gymnasium after school. I found some rubber balls to use in place of the softball because we couldn't afford to break a window. (I was thinking of Jackie here.)

Matt came to practice wearing shirt that boasted a picture of a monkey wearing headphones. On the front were the words: "I see your lips moving, but all I hear is blah-blah-blah!" It was a funny statement for him to make.I laughed appreciatively when I saw it and told him so by gesturing approvingly at his shirt. He grinned back at me. It was hard not to like having Matt around. I couldn't fault him as much as I wanted to for stealing Myriah. I would have to just get over it somehow.

Our indoor practice was better than most of our outdoor practices. Claire was unable to say that the sun got in her eyes so instead she resorted to catching balls rather than making excuses for missing them. Jamie felt more confident throwing and catching a rubber ball. Gabbie joked that we could let him hit a wiffle ball since the rule had been used before. Unfortunately, on game day, Claire would have to deal with the sun, and Jamie would have to hit and catch the real ball. Still, our handicaps were becoming less and less of an issue as the team improved.

"The skill is there!" I told them, proudly. "Now, work on the confidence! We can win this thing!"

Everyone cheered. Buddy shouted, "Let's hear it for David Michael!" They cheered even louder.

Just then, the door that led from the gymnasium to the outside flew open. There stood Karen and Hannie, both drenched in rain water. "You are soooo busted," sneered Karen. "I know, David Michael. I know what you did."


	8. Chapter 7

"I know what you did!" Karen shrieked again, just in case the janitor couldn't hear her while he was cleaning the locker rooms. "You wicked, evil, foul, disgusting little… twerp!" My stepsister never used swear words in her insults, but it hardly made them less effective. "And now, I'm going to tell _everyone_. You're much too pathetic to tell them yourself…"

"WAIT!"

Her eyes narrowed at my outburst. "What? Are you saying you would actually like to explain yourself to us all? People don't like being used, David Michael." Silence filled the gymnasium air as Karen waited for me to say something else.

"What yelling for?" wondered Matt, in a strained and broken but still intelligible voice that took the entire gym by surprise. He blushed furiously when all eyes darted in his direction and looked away as though nothing had happened.

"I made a bet with Kyle Taylor," I admitted sourly. "If we win the game, I get something out of it. I know told some people it was about pride – "Emily made eye contact with me from the stands and shook her head in disbelief. – "I would be lying if I said that was all I was in it for. The real reason I started the team was to keep Kyle away from you, Karen. If we won, he had to leave you alone."

"And if we lost?" Margo inquired, arms crossed and expression indecipherable.

"If they lost, David Michael had to go out with me," Hannie supplied, to my astonishment. She looked at me with an expression of such pain that I had to look away from her. "It was supposed to show Karen that David Michael approved of Kyle or something. Ricky and I were fighting the other day. He was already in on the bet so he told me about it."

"So, you made me a bet! A _bet_!" Karen threw down her purse. "UNBELIEVABLE!" She stalked out of the gym, completely unaware that Hannie was now wiping tears out of her eyes. As she stooped to collect Karen's purse, I ran over to her.

"Hannie, please," I begged. "I know how you must feel, but –"

"You know how I feel?" she echoed, in disbelief. "I just wonder… what would you have done if you lost? Let me think that you liked me for real?" She sniffled as I fell silent again. "Yeah, I thought so." And with that, Hannie followed Karen out.

I was left with the Krushers.

"That was stupid, dude," said Jackie.

"Pathetic, if you ask me," added Margo, moving over to me. "Still, I think we can turn this into a good thing. Stupid or not, it got the Krushers back together, right?"

"Are you hearing yourself, Margo?" asked an appalled Suzi Barrett. "Krushers or no Krushers, it was a rotten thing to do to poor Hannie. And… to Karen, too, I guess. David Michael and Kyle completely crossed the line. I know _I_ couldn't play under the circumstances."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jake trying to sign all of this to Matt.

"But we have to play!" cried Margo, desperately. When she looked around and saw the lack of support she was getting, she threw down her glove in disgust. "I have waited years for this! Why does it have to be taken away just because David Michael made one mistake?"

"Uh, guys?" Jake pointed to Matt, who was now waving his hands in the air and jumping up and down in an attempt to gain attention. He signed slowly to Jake. "I'm not keeping up well enough for Matt, but he says he gets most of it anyway. He wanted to know if – if we still get to play. He says… slow down, dude… he says nothing is bad enough to… eat? Oh, to quit! To quit."

Matt applauded Jake, which made everyone laugh. I shot him a grateful smile and Margo exclaimed, "MATT! You are the voice of reason!" She signed a thank you. "We need to vote on this. Who still wants to play?"

Margo raised her hand with Claire and Nick following in suite. Once Matt understood what was going on, he raised his hand, followed by Jake. Laurel looked back and forth between Patsy and Jake, but her hand stayed down. No one else moved a muscle.

"Okay… what if I have an idea?" Margo was looking desperate. We need a quick team meeting by the bleachers. Um, but David Michael…"

"I know," I said. "I sit this one out." And so I was left to sit and wonder while Margo led the group over to the other side of the gym. I could see her talking emphatically to the rest of the team. Occasionally, a few of them would glance over at me. I did my best to look as pitiful and remorseful as possible. I hoped Margo was as persuasive as she looked. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they made their way over to me.

"We will still be playing on Saturday," Margo announced proudly. I jumped up impulsively, wanting very much to hug her. But she held up her hand and backed away. "Hold on a second. Just a couple of conditions are in order for David Michael to join us, which I will explain to him momentarily. Obviously, the bet is off. But I know Kyle and the Bashers will still want to play us. They would never want to forfeit like wimps. So, you know what that means! Everyone, get back to practicing!"

When she clapped her hands, everyone obeyed her order. I took off the hat I had been wearing – one from Kristy that said COACH – and placed in on Margo's head. She smiled ruefully at me.

"I appreciate that," she told me. "Now - Condition Number One is that you must go and apologize immediately."

"Of course," I replied. "I would have done that anyway. I feel terrible for what I did to Hannie."

"And to Karen," Margo said, sharply. "You will apologize to them both. Invite them to play with us, too."

I hesitated for just a moment, but Margo was giving me the evil eye so I consented. "Okay, I promise to apologize to Karen as soon as I see her. I doubt she and Hannie will want to play, but I will ask after I apologize. Am I cool with you guys now?"

"Not so fast," she said, and this time she was smiling deviously at me. "One more condition, David Michael, and this one might not be as easy for you. That pride you were talking about? Get ready to swallow it."

"What's the next condition?"

Margo grinned. "That, I'm afraid, you'll have to wait a little longer to find about it. Rest assured it is a good one. And Suzi thought of it. I never knew she was so cunning." I turned to see Suzi eyeing me deviously from across the gym. When she caught my eye, she laughed before throwing the ball back to Jackie. I literally shuddered.

"And it looks like you can start working on those conditions right now," Margo gestured to the door. There stood Hannie, who had returned for some inexplicable reason. Without so much as a nudge from Margo, I approached her. She had her head down and was staring at her feet.

"Hannie, thank you for coming back," I began. "Look, I am so…"

"I'm sorry, David Michael," she said, quickly. "I overreacted just then. The double date wasn't even your idea, it was Kyle's. I shouldn't be angry with you…"

"Yes, you should!" I could not believe what I was hearing. How could Hannie be so kind and actually be apologizing to me? "Hannie, you should hate me. It was an awful thing for me to agree to. All I can do is beg for your forgiveness."

She smiled shyly. "You're forgiven, then… under one condition."

_More conditions? _I braced myself, but nodded anyway.

"Could – could you find out what Jackie Rodowsky thinks of me?"

I nearly choked. "Jackie? You – are you saying you like Jackie?"

"I have for a really long time," Hannie answered. "Only I'm so shy. I'm shy around _all _boys. I'm even shy around you sometimes. Maybe you've noticed? And I know how dumb that is! Because, I mean, YOU, you're like a brother to me! I'm at your house so much that I might as well be your sister."

I laughed, in spite of my embarrassment. How self-centered was I – to think Hannie had a gigantic crush on me. To take the word of my gossipy stepsister!

"I will try to find out," I promised her. "Will you do something for me as well?"

"What would you like for me to do?"

"Would you join the team?" I asked. "It would give you an excuse to talk to Jackie. And I would really, really appreciate it if you helped us." When she still looked hesitant, I added. "If I get Karen to join, will you join?"

She smiled then. "Sure I will." Then she turned and yelled out the door. "KAREN!"

"Whoa!" I replied. "She's still here, too?" I shouldn't have been so shocked. Where there is a Hannie, there is a Karen. Karen must've been sulking right outside the door the whole time. She came in, glared at Hannie, glared at me, and then turned back to Hannie.

"Hannie, tell David Michael I have nothing to say to him."

"But he has something to say to YOU," Hannie informed Karen.

"I suppose you want to beg my forgiveness?" Karen sniffed the air. "Well, I won't be as easy to coherse. Hannie, you should know that my stepbrother does this kind of thing all the time. You shouldn't believe a word he says."

"I do it all the time?" I echoed, agast. Karen huffed. Hannie coughed and shook her head at me emphatically. How badly did I want to save my own skin just now? Pretty badly, considering the next two words out of my mouth...

"You're right," I said. "Karen, it was so wrong of me to use you. I feel awful about it. Can you ever forgive me?"

Karen looked like she was about to make a very big decision. "Well, the one good thing that came of all this was me finding out what a bad, rotten loser Kyle Taylor is. So... I will forgive you this time, David Michael... on one condition."

_What else could there be?_

"I want to be on the Krushers, too."

"DONE!" I cried. I took Karen by the hands and dancing around with her a few times. She quickly thrust my hands away from hers in disgust and put them on her hips in annoyance. Hannie covered her mouth to hide her giggles.

"Guys, we have two new Krushers!" I turned and called out to the rest of the gym. Margo jumped up and down eagerly and clapped her hands. The rest of the team erupted in happy applause. Now, more than ever, we HAD to beat those Bashers! More was at stake than ever before.


	9. Chapter 8

Author's Notes: Your reviews have been most helpful! (Also, they made me feel bad about taking so long.) I have the last chapter or two (however much it takes) pretty much mapped out in my head now so it should be easy to write the rest. I'm going to try to explain away any of the characters I didn't use to make the reformed Krushers. Sorry if I left one of your favorites out! Keep reading, keep reviewing!

* * *

My conscience felt a lot clearer after Monday. Even so, I officially let Margo take over as the Head Coach of the team. She had come to my rescue and kept the team together; it was the right thing to do. And Margo proved to be extremely capable of the job. She was like a little Kristin Amanda Thomas.

We had mandatory practices for the rest of the week. We visited the batting cages again. Jamie and Claire even took up tennis with Lindsey and Madeleine DeWitt to improve their hand-eye coordination. They would both come straight from tennis lessons to softball practice, looking worn out but determined.

"I think I should try out for tennis this year," Jamie told me one day while we were sitting the bench during Round Robin. "Madeleine says that I have a natural knack for it. She even offered to give me private lessons."

I merely grinned. Coordination was Claire's problem, but it didn't seem to be Jamie's. A tennis ball was much smaller and would presumably hurt a lot less if it made contact with your face. It was all in his head.

"I can think of a few _more_ reasons Madeleine wants to give Jamie private lessons," Suzi, who seemed to overhear every conversation that would interest her, whispered to me. She burst into giggles, which left Jamie looking quite confused. Suzi carried on further, in a kind of shouted whisper that I knew Jamie could hear, "She is in L-O-V-E! With J-A-M-E!" (And here I thought all cheerleaders could spell.)

Was it just me or had Spring Fever swept Stoneybrook lately?

Speaking of love connections, I tried to stay true to my promise to Hannie. Instead of just outright asking Jackie what he thought of her, I tried to find out if they had any hobbies in common. To my shock and amazement, Jackie was into indoor rock climbing! That was the last thing I expected to hear from the Walking Disaster himself. Turns out, though, the climber is really at the mercy of whoever belays, or controls the ropes at the bottom. And apparently, his two brothers were pretty good at that. Jackie was simply _never_ allowed to belay anyone. When I mentioned the rock climbing to Hannie, she beamed. It turned out that they had something in common. Hannie loved climbing, too.

"So, do I really have to ask him what he thinks of you?" I asked Hannie as we played catch together one day. "Why not just arrange a climbing date with him?"

"Me? Ask a guy out? I could never!"

"Why not?" I said. "Karen does it all the time."

"David Michael," she said, reproachfully. "However much I may try to be like her, I am not and will never be Karen Brewer."

"Yeah, I've always wondered about that," I said. It was nice to finally get talk to Hannie without worrying about giving her the wrong idea. Now we could talk for real. "Why do you try to be like Karen all the time?"

She laughed. "You know… I don't know," she said. "Before Nancy moved away, people always said I copied everything she did. Now everyone says I copy Karen. I guess I don't quite know who I am."

"You aren't just like Karen," I told her. "I can see lots of differences. Just be yourself. And _do _ask Jackie on that climbing date. I know Jackie. He would never try to ask you out himself."

"Hey!" Hannie looked offended. "Why not?"

"No, no, no," I said quickly. "It has nothing to do with _you, _Hannie. Jackie has never dated anyone. He doesn't have the first clue about how to ask a girl out. So you see? It has to be your job."

"Have _you _ever dated anyone?" Hannie asked innocently.

"It's different with me," I insisted. "It really doesn't fit into my life at the moment, to tell you the truth. I've got a lot of other stuff going with… you know… the usual stuff…"

"Oh… sure, I understand."

"… Yeah, thanks."

"Anytime."

* * *

Friday was a long school day. We had just one more practice left before the Bashers game, and it was on my mind all day long. I had an English test during first period and I could only pray that I did alright. During my essay about To Kill a Mockingbird, I somehow drew a parallel between the relationship of Scout and Jem and the Krushers/Bashers game.

Around lunchtime, something interesting happened to break up the general monotony of the day. Matt Braddock showed up at school with Haley. I spotted Haley first. She was in line for the soda machine. I did a double-take at first because of her spaghetti strap tank (clearly against school dress code), and then because I realized who she was.

"Haley?" I exclaimed; she turned to face me. "What are you doing here? Are you allowed to even come here after, you know, you graduate?"

"Apparently so," she grinned broadly. "And I totally wore this shirt to piss the administrators off. I think it worked already. Anyway, I'm here with Matt. He's here. He's in line to buy food. I gave him three dollars. Was that enough?"

"Wait, what? Why is _Matt _here?"

"Remember how I told you he might try to do his senior year here?" she replied. "Well, we arranged a tour of the school for him. This is the only day we can do it. We go on a family vacation next week since I'm out of college for Spring Break."

"Wow," I replied. "Well, should you go help him? You know, in line?"

"He has a paper and pen," she said, calmly. "I'm just here today to help him meet some teachers. Maybe some students, if he can work up the nerve. Matt would be in a special class part of the day and would get an interpreter for regular classes."

"Cool," I said. "I could help introduce him if you want."

"Awesome," she beamed. It was her turn in line so she put her dollar in and bought a Dr. Pepper. "A lot of the Krushers have offered. Thanks to Myriah, he met all of the cheerleaders this morning. But I guess you probably noticed that he only cares about _one_ cheerleader at the moment."

"Well, you heard what Gabbie said," I replied, dryly, as I stepped forward and bought my Mountain Dew. "Myriah has that effect on boys."

"Is that for the green monster?" she gestured to my green soda can.

"Ha, you're funny," I said, sarcastically, and she snickered inaudibly. "Actually, this is an old remedy," I explained, holding up my can. "It gets _rid_ of the green monster."

She nodded seriously and nonchalantly followed me back to my table. Eventually, Matt came to join us. I introduced him to some guys who ate with me. Then Jackie, Margo, and Laurel joined us at the table. Myriah was the last to sit down with us, looking as lovely as ever as she pulled up a chair next to Matt.

Maybe it was the effect of the Mountain Dew poisoning my green monster, but at some point, it occurred to me that I might not have anything in common with Myriah. I thought about how important it had been to find common ground for Hannie and Jackie. Well? What would I have to say to Myriah anyway? Matt couldn't speak (or, at any rate, wasn't very good at it) and from the looks of it, he had plenty to say to her. Maybe they had something in common. They both knew sign language, for one thing.

"Yo, Earth to David Michael?" Margo waved her hand in front of my face. I snapped back to attention. "When does Kristy come home?"

"She comes home today," I said. "Probably around six or seven o'clock."

"Could we help you welcome her home?" Margo asked, hopefully. "I was thinking maybe a bunch of us Krushers could hold a banner or something. You know, like, 'Welcome home, Coach Kristy!'"

"I love that idea," I replied immediately. Where did Margo come up with this stuff? I never knew she had it in her.

"I want to help!" Jackie exclaimed.

"Me too!" Haley said. She quickly signed the plan to her brother, and his face lit up instantly. Haley translated, "We'll be there. I want to see Kristy. She's awesome! Will any other sitters come? Jessi? Mallory? Claudia? Stacey? Abby? Dawn? Logan?" His fingers flew as he signed their names and Haley hardly looked at him as she supplied the translation.

"Wow, that was fast," Myriah commented, signing to him. "My fingers are no good. Look. M-Y-R-I-A-H. Slow."

"Hey, Matt?" said Margo. "Mallory is going to come and she called Jessi. Jessi says she will try to make it. But there are even more people coming. I've been working on getting a bunch of fans together for Saturday. It will be awesome. David Michael, we need to make sure we bring lots of chairs. There might not be enough room in the stands."

"I have a new name for you," I told Margo. "Kristy 2.0."

* * *

Several hours later, Margo's idea played out in our driveway as the original Kristy arrived home. While everyone was waving and cheering, I peered into her SUV, looking for that male passenger who was supposed to be there. It was empty, except for her suitcase. She parked and got out, her hand on her heart and mouth gaping in surprise.

"My Krushers!" Kristy grinned a mile wide. "I was coming to see you, but you all came to see me. Wow, look at this banner! Terrific, who thought of that?"

"Margo did," said Mallory Pike, who had made it back to Stoneybrook just an hour earlier than Kristy. With her had come her college roommate and sister, Vanessa. "She's just like a little version of you these days."

"Mal, you came too!" Kristy hugged her, then turned to hug me next. "Hi! Charlie just called a few minutes ago. He'll be coming with Faith and Casey tomorrow. Sam's going to try to make it, too. Only if you promise to win, he says."

"Well, it's the Bashers so you never know," I said, still not feeling too confident but still happy nevertheless. "Uh, Kris, where's that new boyfriend you said you'd bring home?"

"He was a bad, rotten loser like Kyle," Karen supplied, patting Kristy's shoulder reassuringly. "So, she dumped him and came home to see us."

Kristy just laughed. "It wasn't meant to be," she said, waving it off. Turning to the rest of the group, she stuck her hands on her hips and looked serious. "Krushers – huddle! Hands in! Who will we beat?" (Everyone yelled, 'BASHERS!') WHO? ('BASHERS!') Krushers on three – ONE, TWO, THREE!"

"KRUSHERS!"

"OW!"

(Do I even have to tell you who said that?)


	10. Chapter 9

Game Day!

The morning started off with a big pancake breakfast at the Thomas-Brewer residence. Charlie, his wife, Faith, and their two-year-old son Casey arrived before I was even awake. I came downstairs to find them sitting at the table. Casey ran across the kitchen towards me and yelled, "Day-Michael!" I promptly scooped him up and tossed him in the air. He shrieked with joy. Being an uncle is fun, but I could never keep up with Casey all the time. Faith got to her feet slowly and tried to hug me, but only managed to pat my shoulder with Casey and her belly in the way. Faith and Charlie were expecting a girl sometime next month.

"Thanks for coming!" I told them. Before I could ask about my other big brother, the door creaked open and a laundry basket dropped onto the floor. Sam stepped over it as he slipped inside, grinning goofily at us. He kicked the basket aside and opened the door all the way for a girl with wild, spiky hair and combat boots. She waved enthusiastically at us.

"This is Sam," announced Sam. "Samantha, that is, but she goes by Sam. She wanted to come at the last minute. Are we in time for food?"

"Hi!" exclaimed Sam (the girl) "Sam has told me so much about you guys. I can't wait to see this game. I love softball. I used to play short stop in high school."

Kristy grinned, "I like her already," she told our brother as she added two more plates to the table.

We spent the morning getting acquainted with Sam-the-girl and talking with Faith and Charlie about the new baby. I savored every moment spent with my older brothers. I missed getting to see them all the time. It meant the world to me that they both had come. After breakfast, we piled into cars. There were thirteen of us – Mom, Watson, Faith, Charlie, Casey, the Sams, Kristy, me, Karen, Andrew, Emily and Shannon (our dog) – plus a bunch of softball equipment and extra chairs so we managed to make the trip in three vehicles.

Margo had been right about our need for lots of chairs. The stands were filling up already and we hadn't even started warming up. I spotted Nina and Eleanor Marshall with Lucy Newton. They still came to town to visit often, even though it had been a long time since they lived in Stoneybrook. (The Marshalls now called Stamford home.) Jessi and Becca Ramsey were there, too, having a signed conversation with Matt. The other members of the Barrett-DeWitt clan – Lindsey, Madeleine, Marnie, and Ryan – comprised a huge section of the crowd alongside the remaining Pikes – Byron, Jordan, Adam, and Mallory. Vanessa Pike was there, too, but she and Haley were standing in front of the crowd wearing jean skirts, leggings and Krushers shirts. They waved pom-poms around and generally acted pretty goofy, but they were entertaining nevertheless.

Compared to our side, the Bashers' side looked pretty scarce. I was very glad that I didn't have to ask Moon and Quad Pickney back on the Krushers when I saw them hanging out with Max Delaney and doing bad impressions of our cheerleaders. Amanda Delaney was there, too, but she had distanced herself from them. She was sitting with Maria Kilbourne, who despite being one of the most popular girls at SDS, is a very nice person. Maria looked like she was torn between sides since she has been known to hang out with Hannie and Karen, as well as Amanda (though never at the same time).

When I arrived with the equipment, we started warming up on our side of the field. Buddy began hitting fly balls to our outfielders. I looked for Nick to pitch with me, but he was nowhere to be found, even though his other siblings had all arrived. I shrugged it off and went to find Jake, the only other pitcher on our team. He had just arrived with Laurel and Patsy. I held up the ball and yelled, "Jake! Come pitch with me?"

"Pitch?" He grabbed his glove and ran over. "What about Nick?"

I shrugged. "I don't see him here," I said. "I see the rest of the Pikes, but no Nick."

"Weird," he commented, frowning. "Dude, you don't want me to have to pitch today. I-I don't do that well under pressure, you know…"

I shook my head. "Jake, I'm sorry, but you're relief pitcher if Nick doesn't show up." Just then, Claire ran by. "Hey, Claire, where's Nick?"

"He still isn't here?" she replied, looking around. "Darn. Mom must still have him. He's on his way. He got in trouble last night for blowing off curfew again. She was trying to come up with a really good way to punish him this time."

I sighed. "Forget it," I said. "Jake, let's warm up."

We tossed it back and forth for awhile as I wondered what Mrs. Pike could possibly be doing to poor Nick. As we warmed up, Jake's pitching okay, but one mistake every now and then would fluster him. For every one mistake, he then made three more. Once he sent it flying into the crowd, and Charlie caught it just before it hit Casey. He came over and asked us, in a gruff voice, if we could move a bit farther away from the crowd or else pitch more accurately. I could hardly be angry with Charlie, considering he had a point. Jake began pacing nervously and muttered to himself a bit.

In an instant, Laurel came running over and pulled her brother aside. She handed him a Gatorade and began walking around with him. I guess she knew how to deal with Jake when he got this way. I turned around, intending to look for Nick. Instead, I came face to face with Margo.

"Have you seen Nick yet?" I asked.

"Nick?" she replied. "No, but don't worry about it. He'll be here any minute. In the meantime, are you done warming up? (I nodded.) Good! Condition Number Two, David Michael, is that you show us all a little team spirit. You get to warm up the crowd for us with Vanessa and Haley!" She offered me a pair of pom-poms.

"That's the second condition?"

"That isn't all of it," Suzi meandered toward us, looking devious as she hid something behind her back. "You have to look the part."

Even before she showed it to me, I already knew what else they had in store. As Suzi held out a long denim skirt, I hung my head in shame. And it turned out, there was more! Marnie trailed behind her with a long, blonde wig. Without so much as a protest, I accepted my fate to be dressed as a girl and forced into making a fool of myself. It was, afterall, my own fault entirely. Once I had the skirt on over my shorts and the wig placed crookedly on my head, Madeleine DeWitt finished me off with some bright pink lipstick. Giggling, Margo handed me my pom-poms. Haley and Vanessa waved me over. With the crowd whistling and my older brothers beside themselves with roaring laughter, I submissively added myself to the cheerleading squad.

"Check it out, the Three Stooges have returned!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"Couldn't we have dressed up in those costumes instead?" I pleaded. "They probably would fit now, you know."

"Hush!" Haley ordered. "We have some cheering to do. Charlotte was always professional about these things. If you're going to be her replacement, you need to do the same." She sounded entirely serious, even though she wore a little smirk the whole time. "Ready? OKAY!"

"Krushers crush! Bashers bash! But we'll crush those Bashers in a flash!" They repeated the chant over and over and I joined in. Then Haley and Vanessa attempted to pick me up. I fell on top of them in a heap and we laughed until our stomachs hurt. By now, the crowd was on their feet and had joined us in chanting. They stopped when we fell and laughter followed.

"Nice outfit, Thomas!" I heard Kyle call out. The Bashers had stopped playing to watch us, too. Instead of feeling embarrassed, however, I felt smug. Kyle no longer had my stepsister.

"Oh, you like it? You can wear it to school after you lose today. In fact, I think you should wear it for a whole week!"

"Sounds good to me!" Kyle retorted. "You might as well leave it on."

"Uh, guys," said Vanessa. "They wear uniforms at SDS. So that bet won't work."

"No more betting!" Karen had heard me. She threw down her glove and put her hands on her hips. "No more betting or Hannie and I don't play." Hannie looked murderous. It looked like she was starting to get tired of taking orders from Karen.

"Kyle, please," said one of the female Bashers. "No more betting." A few of her teammates were nodding as well. It looked like the Krushers weren't the only ones who had had enough of the betting.

"Fine," said Kyle. He looked at me and I nodded. Now we really _were _playing for pride. And it should have been that way all along.

"Haley, Vanessa," I said. "Am I excused?"

"Margo, Suzi?" Haley turned to the girls who could answer my question. They looked at each other and nodded. I wasted no time in ridding myself of the skirt and the wig.

The game was about to start. Our referee had just arrived. We had given that job to Mr. Kilbourne, Maria's father, who was friends with both Mr. Taylor and Watson. That seemed like enough to qualify him as an impartial judge. And arriving right behind Mr. Kilbourne were Nick and Mrs. Pike. Nick looked at the ground as he walked behind his mother.

"Stop that sulking," she said, in a hushed whisper that was still loud enough for everyone to hear. With that, Mrs. Pike took off for the stands leaving Nick to explain. From the look on his face, there was something he really did not want to tell us.

"I'm grounded," he told us.

"Grounded from… what?" I was afraid to hear the rest.

"Not from playing," he sighed heavily. "But from pitching. Mom almost grounded me from playing altogether, but I got her to give in just a little bit. She still wants me to learn a lesson or something so I won't be allowed to pitch today."

"I knew it," Margo exhaled loudly. "Mom always tries to take away what matters the most when she grounds us. Nick, I'm surprised you're even here." She looked at the line-up, which she and I had painstakingly put together yesterday. We had worked hard to ensure that everyone would get adequate playing time. "A few things will have to change here…"

"Can she be talked out of it?" Jackie asked.

Claire raised one eyebrow, a talent I was unaware she had. "Do _you _want to try?"

Jackie looked at Mrs. Pike. "No, not really."

"Well," I said, looking at Jake. "I know you're nervous about pitching. I'll pitch as long as I can. I'm not as good as you, Nick," I said, looking him in the eye. He immediately looked away. "But I'll do my best."

"David Michael?"

"What is it, Gabbie?"

"Nice lipstick."

I hastily wiped at my mouth. Giggling, Gabbie produced a tissue for me.

"Team captains?" That was Mr. Kilbourne. I patted Margo on the shoulder and sent her to meet Kyle at home plate. Kyle looked surprised to see Margo instead of me, but said nothing. The coin was flipped, and we won the honor of home field advantage. This was good – it meant we got to bat last. With that, we took the field!


	11. Chapter 10

"Three up, three down! Nobody gets around!" We took the field to the sound of cheering. That was Haley, cheering for us to strike out the first three batters and keep any runs from being scored. Vanessa joined her in repeating it three more times.

_Yeah, right,_ I thought, still secretly worried that we didn't stand much of a chance against Kyle's team. So, as you can imagine, I was pleasantly surprised when the first three runners actually did amount to three outs for the Bashers! The first batter hit the ball straight to me, and I immediately fielded it and threw it to Buddy at first base for the out. The second batter struck out. The third hit a very high pop fly to Matt in left-center field. It hit his glove with a resounding smack, and he held it proudly in the air!

We traded sides and went up to bat. It was like watching what had just happened on repeat. The Bashers showed off their impressive fielding skills by getting outs on the first three Krushers batters – Matt, Gabbie, and me. My hard grounder to third base was fielded by Kyle. A less-experienced player might have missed the ball or fielded it but overthrown to first base. Not Kyle. After firing the ball to their first basewoman, he made eye contact with me and smirked.

At the end of the first inning, the score read 0-0. The second, 3-0, Krushers! The third, 3-4, Bashers. The fourth, 5-4. The game remained incredibly close with the Krushers playing like champions. And we were in the lead, again, but not by much. Still, I never expected to see a close game between our teams. I knew then that I had underestimated my Krushers. We now had an amazing team consisting of people who had played for years! Halfway through the game, Margo did some rearranging and even took herself out of the game, putting Myriah on second base instead. She made several other swaps – Andrew for Jamie, Claire for Patsy, Laurel for Suzi, Hannie for Karen – in order to give everyone on the team a chance to play. I was bursting with pride for my team as we went into the final inning with five minutes left on the clock, one point up on the Bashers, and the advantage of batting last.

"Keep up the good work!" she called to me, as I headed back to the pitchers' mound. I could feel myself getting tired, but my only option was to keep pitching, thanks to Nick and Mrs. Pike. I shook it off and sized up my batter. He looked like a close relative to Moon and Quad Pickney with broad shoulders and a thick torso. This was his first at-bat; Kyle had just put him in for another player. He took a few practice swings, and by the look of them, he was a seriously good hitter.

He sent my first pitch sailing past Laurel in left field, but it went past the line and was no longer in play – a foul ball.

"Get ready, Laurel, it's coming to you again!" her brother yelled.

Sure enough, the batter sent the next pitch sailing to left field. Although Laurel had been ready, this one went over her head, too. Matt tried to back her up, but was unable to get there in time. They both chased the ball to the fence.

This Pickney cousin ran the bases with unforeseen speed. As he zoomed towards third base, I knew he was not about to stop. Quickly, I ran from the mound to home plate where a defenseless Hannie looked scared out of her wits. Knowing that Matt could and would throw the ball from the fence to the plate, I covered home and put up my glove. Sure enough, Matt fired the ball straight to me. The ball hit my glove right as the two-hundred-and-something pound Basher charged towards me at full speed. I fell backwards with my right shoulder breaking my fall. The ball slipped out of my grip and bounced onto the ground. My shoulder throbbed with intense pain. And all this for nothing! The batter was…

"SAFE!"

"David Michael?" Hannie hovered over me as I rolled around on the ground, clutching my shoulder. "Are you okay? You totally just saved my life!"

"Dude, that was insane," exclaimed Buddy. "Whoa! Are you hurt?"

Karen appeared out of nowhere. She must have run in from the dugout. "Of course he's hurt! Give him some room! Out of my way, please, I have water."

I sat up, removed my glove, and took a gulp of water just so that I could breathe again. My shoulder throbbed with a horrible pain. I had no idea how badly I was injured, but this was my pitching arm. I looked up to see that Jake had left third base to gather around me, too. He gaped at me in horror, knowing what my injury would mean.

With difficulty, I got to my feet by allowing Buddy to pull me up by my left hand. I gave a small wave to the crowd before cradling my injured arm in my other arm. They all began cheering for me, with Kristy being the loudest one. I stooped to retrieve the ball and passed it to Jake.

"No, no, please," Jake begged, staring apprehensively at the ball. "What about Nick? Mrs. Pike – can he pitch?"

All eyes went to Nick's mother, who was seated on the stands near the triplets and looked for a moment like she was considering this request, given that it had come from someone other than another Pike. But she pressed her lips together tightly and shook her head. "A punishment is a punishment."

Matt had run in from the outfield. "You can do it," he said, speaking for the second time in our presence rather than signing. He patted Jake's shoulder and signed the rest of his encouragement. "Same as practice," Myriah translated, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, Jake, we've all seen you!" she added.

Jake traced the laces on the ball, looking anxious again. I thought he was about to back down. My mind raced as I tried to come up with another pitcher. Jackie? Too unpredictable. Matt? We needed him in outfield. Gabbie? It would be too dangerous to try her there. No one else had really pitched in practice.

"Ja-ake!" chanted Laurel. "Ja-ake!" Ja-ake!" We all joined her. Even Matt got the idea and joined the cheer, although it sounded a bit like this: "Jug… jug… jug!" We cheered him all the way to the mound. He grinned – looking a bit scared but thrilled to have our support – and started to warm up with Hannie.

My whole family waited for me beside the dugout as Karen walked me off the field, fussing over me the entire way. My face blinked like a stoplight. I sat down next to Margo who had lost all the color in hers and stared at me in horror.

"They play dirty," she asserted. "Kyle should take him out of the game."

"Kyle probably told him to do that to get me back," I answered.

"Get you back for what?" Kristy asked.

I exchanged looks with Margo. "It's a long story."

"Does Bart realize his brother is using these tactics?" Kristy wanted to know. She seemed to have located Bart Taylor in the stands now and was glaring at him as she spoke. "Of course not, oblivious as always."

"Forget about it, Kristy," I implored her. "We just need to beat them."

"Not going to be easy, is it?" Margo put in. Sighing deeply, she simply gestured to the game. The batter was taking her base because Jake had just thrown her four balls. I sighed as well. The next batter did the same. And then the next. Pretty soon, they scored a couple of runs this way. I could see Kyle instructing all of his hitters to simply stand there while Jake threw wild pitch after wild pitch. And then I caught sight of Laurel gesturing to Matt in left field. After a moment, Matt began signing wildly to Haley. She ran over to the dugout.

"Matt says that Laurel says she needs to be his catcher."

"How did Laurel _say _that to him?" Karen wanted to know.

"Gestures, of course," said Haley. "I think you should do what she says. Jake must be used to having Laurel catch for him. I guess it makes a difference somehow?"

"It makes no difference whatsoever," I shook my head. "This is not baseball. The catcher never, like, signals the pitcher or anything. They just stick a glove out."

"David Michael?" Margo interrupted. "Let's just switch Laurel and Hannie. What have we got to lose?"

Margo had a point. What could it hurt? We quickly called a time out and switched the girls. Hannie looked confused but still relieved as she took off the mask, shin guards, and chest protector. She must have been scared out of her wits when she nearly got tackled at home plate. I was glad that I was hurt instead of her.

"Jake and I have practiced a lot," Laurel explained, as she put on the catcher's gear. "I think having me behind the plate will make it feel more like practice."

I was somewhat skeptical, but as it turned out, Laurel's theory was one hundred percent correct. Jake threw his first strike. The Basher who had been instructed not to swing continued to follow those instructions and struck out. Our cheerleaders cheered louder than ever before.

Kyle was next. He took a few practice swings, obviously planning on going for a big hit. Margo yelled for the outfielders to take several steps backwards. Kyle sent the ball high into right-center field where Jackie was positioned. I gritted my teeth and held my breath. With Jackie, you never knew. I could see that he needed to back up faster or else it would go over his head.

"BACK!" I screamed.

Jackie had to leap into the air to catch it. As the ball hit his glove, he returned to the ground and rolled on the grass. The ball remained clutched tightly in his glove. Kyle was out! But as Jackie stood up, the Basher on third base tagged up and started towards home. He was about to score! Without missing a beat, Jackie threw the ball towards the plate.

"Jake, cover home!" I yelped. But instead, Jake remained on the mound, having forgotten that covering the plate was part of his position as well. Miraculously, Laurel caught the ball, but she had to move away from the plate to field the throw. The Basher scored easily.

"You did fine, Laurel!" Margo yelled. "Nice catch, anyway!"

"Two outs! Any base!" cried Buddy to the Krushers.

"Run on anything!" countered Kyle to the Bashers.

But nothing happened in the field. Instead, Jake struck out the batter on his own. I beamed with pride for him. Still, we were now down by four runs. Now all the time had run out so the Bashers would not be batting again. Instead, it was down to us. Could we score five points?

"Who bats next?" Margo wanted to know as they came back.

"I do," Claire looked miserable. "Sorry, guys." Behind Claire was Jamie followed by Suzi. They were the last three players on the roster, but fortunately, we started up again with Matt Braddock at the top. If they could just manage _not _to make three outs before that, we would be okay. How successful had Jamie and Claire been with all their batting practice? We were about to find out.

Claire was first. She hit the ball straight to the shortstop who easily fielded it and threw her out at first base. I waited to see how Claire would react, bracing myself for the worst. She shrugged, however, and called out, "At least I hit it."

Next came Jamie. "Like we practiced!" Madeleine DeWitt urged from the stands. Jamie almost looked like he was playing tennis as he swung the bat. The ball sailed over the second baseman and landed in the grass. He was on first base!

Suzi got a hit and advanced Jamie to second. Matt was next. I was excited to have two runners on base for him, and sure enough, he sent them both home and stopped at third base himself. Gabbie then brought him home. Finally, Jake took it upon himself to get the biggest hit of the game and to bring in the final two runners.

"Ball game!" cried the umpire. The Krushers erupted into wild cheers. We won!

"Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? Bashers! Bashers!"

* * *

"To the Krushers – for reuniting us with old friends and giving even the most humble benchwarmer a chance to shine!" I concluded my toast by raising a slice of pizza. Grinning, Margo "clinked" her slice with mine as the rest of the team followed suite. Kristy taught me the pizza toast ages ago. She used to do this with the other babysitters all the time. The employees at Pizza Express probably thought we were all crazy.

"After all this practice, maybe I can prove that I belong on the school team," Margo mused. Claire nodded enthusiastically, adding, "And David Michael, too."

"And Jackie," I said, addressing the other person in the booth with us. "No more statistician stuff for you."

"Hey, I _like_ being the statistician," Jackie argued. "… But maybe I could do both."

"If not this year, then next year for sure," I said. "When we're seniors."

"Please don't talk about being a senior," called Kristy in the next booth. "I feel so old."

"Hey, Jackie, we should go sit with Kristy," said Claire, suddenly. "She would love to hear more about your great catch."

"But she saw it."

"_Hey, Jackie, we should go sit with Kristy," _Claire persisted.

As Jackie was being dragged away, I saw Claire say something to him. His eyes lit up with understanding and he went willingly. When I turned back to ask Margo about it, she was staring at her plate and picking at her pizza.

"I meant to tell Claire to forget about it," she muttered.

"Forget about what?" I asked.

"Well, I…" she trailed off, blushing a bit. "Well, okay, I was going to ask you about rock climbing next Saturday. See Hannie is asking Jackie, and Myriah is asking Matt, and I wanted to go but it seems like a… um… a…"

"Date?"

"Well, a _friendly_ sort of date," she said. "Or at least… in our case… but your arm…"

"Oh," I said, understanding. Did Margo like me? It kind of sounded like she did. Or she might just like climbing. Either way, she could have asked another boy. Yet here she was… asking me. "Sorry about that."

"Oh, don't be!" she exclaimed. "It isn't your fault, of course!"

"Well, it _would _be my fault if I turned down a date with a cool girl," I replied, boldly. "A girl that seems to have a lot in common with me."

She smiled. "Hannie thinks so, too."

"She would," I said, glancing at Hannie in another booth. She was watching us without restraint. When I caught her in the act of staring, though, she pretended to be looking around the restaurant. I returned my attention to Margo. "So, how about a movie then?"

Dare I say, the smile that followed was downright beautiful.

End.


End file.
